The really obvious question...

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SotiCoto
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The really obvious question...

Postby SotiCoto » Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:07 pm

Just humour me here... ok?

I've read through the archives right up to the present over the past few days (when I should have been working)... and one glaring weirdness stands out in my mind.

How many actual years, with actual annual events, can Ozy and Millie remain 10 year olds for? I mean its all well and good for them to remain unchanging in age for vast spans of time if the only time-dependant events are deliberately ironic breaks in the 4th wall, implying that their passage of time is very much slower than our own...... but how, in terms of anything resembling reality... can they experience several "christmasses" as consistant 10-yr-olds. Same goes for summer holidays, the winter holidays... the whole works.


... Besides... foxes age faster than people, don't they?

Okokok, I expect Millie wouldn't since her father was reverse-aging while her mother ages normally... so in theory she shouldn't ever change age (though of course genetics doesn't really work like that, and she would probably either age normally, or in reverse... with perhaps minimal splurge)... but Ozy doesn't have that excuse since until her "ascension", his mother was perfectly mortal.... Its not as if it would stop the counting of years they experience either.

I suppose I should ideally e-mail these queries to the Simp, hmm?

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Postby Tom Flapwell » Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:14 pm

It's tradition. Calvin had 11 Christmases at the age of six, and there was supposed to be nothing strange about the fact that honor student Susie kept repeating first grade with him.

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Postby Bocaj Claw » Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:20 pm

Its a cartooning thing. Charlie Brown and company didn't ever really grow up either with some notable exceptions, such as when Sally was aged from a babby to school age so she could interact with the other characters.
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Postby Tabris_The_17th » Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:24 pm

Lets also not forget The Simpsons. How many Christmas seasons have they seen while Bart and Lisa still remain in elementary school?

This is where the suspension of disbelief comes in. Sit back, enjoy, and don't think about it.
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Postby SotiCoto » Tue Mar 13, 2007 4:50 pm

Suspension of disbelief has its limits for me. There are certain things that I can shrug off as being important to maintaining entertainment value... but I believe the situation is inverted here... not least given that Ozy and Millie do frequently make references to their own futures, but near and further. I vaguely recall several conversations between Millie and her mother regarding what she is "going to be like", implying the value of the time inbetween... but that itself is being undermined by the fact that she essentially doesn't age anyway... and so all value suggested to be placed on those remaining years of childhood is essentially nullified by its theoretically endless overabundance.
I guess if nothing else its amusingly ironic... though I'm not sure whether that is intended or not.

But I believe it would only add to it if they actually WERE aging... that it would add a further element of interest in there and something to relate to from a reader's perspective.... And without that, sooner or later it is going to end up like that film Groundhog Day: The feeling of constantly being stuck in an unending time-loop where things stagnate from their repetitiveness.


Its worth quite randomly mentioning... one of the reasons I particularly enjoyed watching South Park is that there is actually progression of some sort from one year to the next. There is a feeling of consistant aging to some extent, even with the rest of the complete nonsense. Contrarywise, I never watch the Simpsons because the characters have been going through the same old tripe for decades now and it lost all sense of sensibility many years ago.

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Postby IceDragon » Tue Mar 13, 2007 6:11 pm

Who are you, the author of "For Better or For Worse"?

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Postby Luke B. » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:35 pm

They don't age realistically?

They're... talking, anthropomorphic foxes... in a webcomic... on the internet...

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Postby Bocaj Claw » Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:06 pm

Theres progression in South Park? Za? They even make fun of the lack of progression in the show.
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Postby Tabris_The_17th » Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:23 pm

I'm sorry SotiCoto, it's just your argument doesn't have that much baring. Many MANY comics have existed that follow the same mode of setting and storytelling. It's a staple of comics to keep your characters from aging that's been around for a very long time and has resulted in some VERY successful strips (Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes already having been mentioned). D.C. Simpson is carrying on the tradition of that particular "slice of life" style of a comic strip and in my opinion remains quite successful at it.

Would having them age open up new story possiblities and things of that nature? Sure, there's no doubt about that. The thing is, and I think a lot of people reading the strip would agree, all that is not necessarry. "Ozy and Millie" has a certain tone to it; changing that tone would alter the current nature of the strip and could possibly turn it into something that's not quite the "Ozy and Millie" we know and love.

In a nutshell, "Ozy and Millie" just isn't designed to have the characters significantly grow. This is why so many sitcoms end because the children get too old: people miss the original tone of the series.
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Postby SotiCoto » Wed Mar 14, 2007 9:46 am

So I have different views to most people. No surprise there.

... I don't think that just because other comics choose not to age their characters that it is a good and alright thing to do, especially if the characters happen to be children. One of the key characteristics about children is the fact that they don't tend to stay one way for too long.
In the case at hand, the strangeness is further emphasised because the characters do keep making references to their supposed age, to the supposedly forseen future when they might not be that age... and to the passage of time. The whole thing ends up being very self-contradictory...
... and THAT is what bugs me...
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Postby The Donmeister » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:11 am

How do you know that time passes in their world at the same rate as in ours? Using the current thread as an example, the last 10 strips (excluding filler art) all happened on the same day, although I do see your point about Christmases, summer holidays etc.

And if they did age, as you suggested, the strip would have a completely different feel, and many storylines wouldn't work, eg. the idea of a 17-year-old Millie burning her permission slip would be daft, for many reasons, one of the most important being she wouldn't be at primary/elementary school anymore.

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Postby Kyler Thatch » Wed Mar 14, 2007 10:17 am

Both methods have their merits, they just tend to influence the mood of the comic in a different way. Aging the characters would put a sense of realism into it. But since Ozy and Millie is partly a comical comic (or at least, that's how I see it), keeping the characters the same age seems to work nicely.

Not to say that aging the characters would be a bad thing, no. Just that it would make Ozy and Millie a little... different from what it is right now.
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Re: The really obvious question...

Postby Tum0spoo » Wed Mar 14, 2007 11:56 am

Just humour me here... ok?
...in terms of anything resembling reality...
HAHAHHAHAHAHAAHA </humor>

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Postby SotiCoto » Wed Mar 14, 2007 2:37 pm

Both methods have their merits, they just tend to influence the mood of the comic in a different way. Aging the characters would put a sense of realism into it. But since Ozy and Millie is partly a comical comic (or at least, that's how I see it), keeping the characters the same age seems to work nicely.

Not to say that aging the characters would be a bad thing, no. Just that it would make Ozy and Millie a little... different from what it is right now.
In all fairness, its not as if a few more years would stop them being children.
I suppose I ought at least to calculate how old they would be if the first mention of their age in-strip was taken as a reference... and counting at the very least by the christmasses... They might end up being a bit older than what could be considered "children" that way.
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Postby Bocaj Claw » Wed Mar 14, 2007 3:01 pm

If it helps, they started off the strip as eight year olds and were aged to ten during the style change. But I think you're obsessing over something that doesn't really matter.

If it takes some enjoyment out of the comic for you that the characters are stuck at the same point in time, well, what can you do? Hopefully, you still enjoy the comic enough to continue reading it.

If not: Toodles.
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